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MikroTik WinBox Cleartext Password Storage

Low

Synopsis

MikroTik's WinBox stores the user's cleartext password in a configuration file when the Keep Password option is selected. Keep Password is enabled by default.

Specifically, the password is stored in a file called settings.cfg.viw in Winbox's AppData/Roaming directory. The full path is C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Mikrotik\Winbox\settings.cfg.viw

The username and password can be found appended to the keywords login and pwd respectively.

An attacker that gains access to this file can use it to pivot to the router.

Solution

This issue affects all known versions of WinBox. However, to mitigate this issue, MikroTik suggests using WinBox's "Set Master Password" functionality.

Disclosure Timeline

01/16/2020 - Tenable discloses to MikroTik. 90 days is April 15, 2020.
01/17/2020 - MikroTik indicates that the plaintext password issue isn't an issue because users can encrypt the password through an additional mechanism.
01/17/2020 - Tenable reiterates that they believe plaintext password storage is an issue.
01/18/2020 - MikroTik states "By default, no credentials are being stored in settings.cfg..." MikroTik commits to adding additional info messages.
01/20/2020 - Tenable disagrees. By default Keep Password is set which causes the password to be saved. Tenable agrees additional information to the users would be good.
01/27/2020 - MikroTik replies with, "thank you for the suggestions."

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Tenable takes product security very seriously. If you believe you have found a vulnerability in one of our products, we ask that you please work with us to quickly resolve it in order to protect customers. Tenable believes in responding quickly to such reports, maintaining communication with researchers, and providing a solution in short order.

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If you have questions or corrections about this advisory, please email [email protected]

Risk Information

CVE ID: CVE-2020-5721
Tenable Advisory ID: TRA-2020-23
Credit:
Jacob Baines
CVSSv2 Base / Temporal Score:
2.1 / 1.9
CVSSv2 Vector:
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
Affected Products:
WinBox 3.22 and below
Risk Factor:
Low
Additional Keywords:
CWE-260

Advisory Timeline

April 15, 2020 - Initial Release